Tour buses entering NUS must register for limited slots soon

Move is part of longer-term measures to regulate visitor traffic, addressing students’ concerns

- Wong Man Shun

By January 2025, tour buses entering the National University of Singapore (NUS) will need to register for limited daily slots, as part of longer-term measures to regulate visitor traffic on campus.

This includes tour buses bringing visitors to museums on campus and for official programmes and events. Priority will be given to this group of buses, said the university in a circular on Aug 21.

"This registration measure helps regulate the number of tour buses on campus, ensuring smooth traffic, pedestrian safety, efficient running of our internal shuttle bus services, and ease of point-topoint commuting for our staff and students," it added.

Tour buses ferrying people for registered tours by NUS student ambassadors, who are paid to give guided tours, will be exempt from registration.

NUS added that by January 2025, all students running tours on campus will also need to register with the Office of the Provost.

They will receive annual training equivalent to the training provided to student ambassadors and be certified as registered student docents. They will also need to wear a special ID to be easily identifiable.

"In our engagement with NUS Students' Union (Nussu) and after hearing student feedback, we acknowledge that more needs to be done and will be introducing a number of new, longer-term measures to address the challenges around the high tourist traffic on campus during peak travel seasons," said the circular.

The aim is for these measures to be ready by January 2025, in time for the next tourist peak season, said NUS. The peak seasons are January to February and July to August.